{"id":163,"date":"2018-10-02T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T12:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dereklee.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=163"},"modified":"2018-10-02T14:36:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T14:36:58","slug":"seeing-spots-new-study-reveals-the-giraffe-babies-inherit-spot-patterns-from-their-mothers-and-certain-spot-traits-improve-newborn-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/163\/seeing-spots-new-study-reveals-the-giraffe-babies-inherit-spot-patterns-from-their-mothers-and-certain-spot-traits-improve-newborn-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>50-year-old Hypothesis Confirmed with Modern Techniques<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The beautiful coat patterns of giraffes are individually unique and don\u2019t change with age, but their origins and purpose were a mystery.<\/li>\n<li>A new study found wild giraffe spot pattern traits were heritable, passed down from mother to offspring, and certain spot traits improved survival of newborns.<\/li>\n<li>Quantifying heritability and fitness consequences of individual variation in coat patterns can help us understand how and why complex coat patterns evolved in animals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Arusha, TANZANIA, 2 October 2018-<\/p>\n<p>Giraffe spots are distinctive and beautiful, as shown by the popularity of giraffe patterns in fashion and design. But how giraffe patterns came to be and what purpose they serve in the wild was a mystery until this week. Dr. Derek Lee, associate research professor at Penn State University and principal scientist at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org\">Wild Nature Institute<\/a> published the results of <a href=\"https:\/\/peerj.com\/articles\/5690\/\">a study<\/a> today that revealed wild giraffe spot patterns are heritable, with elements of the pattern passed down from mother to offspring, and certain spot traits improved survival for newborns. Coats with complex patterns are found on many mammal species from anteaters to zebras, and these pelage traits are hypothesized to improve survival and reproduction by affecting predator and parasite evasion, temperature regulation, and social communication. This study was the first to examine complex mammal coat markings as individual traits that might have fitness consequences.\u00a0Dr. Lee said, \u201cQuantifying heritability and fitness consequences of mammal coat pattern traits will help us understand how and why complex coat patterns evolved in wild animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, the first giraffe field researcher in Africa, presented evidence in 1968 that the shape, number, area, and color of spots in giraffe coat patterns may be heritable, but her analysis came from a small zoo population. Forty-nine years later, Lee\u2019s study used a new dataset and modern analysis to confirm Dagg\u2019s hypothesis. The heritability finding was neither surprising nor original, but science advances through replication of studies and the slow accumulation of evidence. The novel aspects of Lee\u2019s study were the use of image analysis software to objectively measure various traits present in giraffe coat patterns, and statistics to quantify the heritability and fitness consequences of the patterns.<\/p>\n<p>The spot pattern traits of circularity and jaggedness of edge were passed from mother to offspring, and variation in the coat patterns of 258 giraffe calves significantly affected their survival during the first few months of life, suggesting spot traits may be associated with anti-predator camouflage. Coauthor Monica Bond, doctoral candidate in ecology at the Univ<\/p>\n<p>ersity of Zurich and principal scientist at the Wild Nature Institute, noted \u201cSurvival in the wild is precarious, and any small advantage such as what these spot traits provided, can mean the difference between an individual\u2019s life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spot traits might also serve other adaptive functions such as social communication, kin recognition, or thermoregulation, and might be associated with other fitness aspects like survival or fecundity of older giraffes. Giraffe skin color is grey, but the spots that make up their fur coat markings are highly variable in color and shape. Because each animal\u2019s patterns are unique and do not change with age, natural coat patterns identify individuals, so wildlife conservation researchers like Dr. Lee use the patterns to study animals without the need for dangerous and traumatic captures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow that we know that genetic variation underlies spot pattern variation in giraffes it should be possible with the aid of the giraffe genome sequence to discover the specific genes that determine spot patterns.\u201c noted Douglas Cavener, Professor of Biology and Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Penn State Eberly College of Science, and coauthor of the paper.<\/p>\n<p>Lee said, \u201cMy hope is that other scientists will use the same tools to measure the traits of complex mammal coat patterns and this will advance our understanding of what these patterns mean.\u201d Giraffes are vulnerable to extinction with a 40% decline over the past few decades. The Wild Nature Institute is running the world\u2019s largest giraffe research project in northern Tanzania, and their results are informing species conservation and the field of evolutionary ecology.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_166\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-166\" style=\"width: 516px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-166 \" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03-300x242.jpg?resize=526%2C424&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Giraffe calf in Tarangire, Tanzania.\" width=\"526\" height=\"424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03.jpg?resize=300%2C242&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03.jpg?resize=768%2C618&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03.jpg?resize=1024%2C824&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/10\/giraffe-03.jpg?w=2400&amp;ssl=1 2400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-166\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Giraffe calf in Tarangire, Tanzania.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/peerj.com\/articles\/5690\/\">Lee DE, Cavener DR, Bond ML. 2018. Seeing spots: Quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis). PeerJ. doi: 10.7717\/peerj.5690.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>50-year-old Hypothesis Confirmed with Modern Techniques The beautiful coat patterns of giraffes are individually unique and don\u2019t change with age, but their origins and purpose were a mystery. A new study found wild giraffe spot pattern traits were heritable, passed down from mother to offspring, and certain spot traits improved survival of newborns. Quantifying heritability &#8230; <a title=\"Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/163\/seeing-spots-new-study-reveals-the-giraffe-babies-inherit-spot-patterns-from-their-mothers-and-certain-spot-traits-improve-newborn-survival\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,2,21,3],"tags":[5,8,6,7,4,23],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal","category-ecology","category-giraffe","category-wildlife-conservation","tag-animals","tag-derek-lee","tag-giraffe","tag-wild-nature-institute","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-conservation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival - Derek Lee<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/163\/seeing-spots-new-study-reveals-the-giraffe-babies-inherit-spot-patterns-from-their-mothers-and-certain-spot-traits-improve-newborn-survival\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"50-year-old Hypothesis Confirmed with Modern Techniques The beautiful coat patterns of giraffes are individually unique and don\u2019t change with age, but their origins and purpose were a mystery. 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Current research investigates Masai Giraffe and other large mammal populations within a fragmented landscape in Tanzania. This work examines how births, deaths, and movements of ungulates are impacted by increasingly fragmented wildlife habitat, and what conservation actions are most effective. He spent 10 years researching the impacts of climate and ocean conditions on survival, reproduction, and population growth rates of marine predators such as northern elephant seals, Common Murres, and Cassin's Auklets at the South Farallon Islands, California. His work was included in a conservation and management plan for seabirds in the California Current. He also studied migration of Black Brant in Humboldt Bay as well as fire ecology of small mammals in California's oak woodlands and California Spotted Owls in the Sierra Nevada.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/scienceblog.com\\\/dereklee\\\/author\\\/dereklee\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival - Derek Lee","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/163\/seeing-spots-new-study-reveals-the-giraffe-babies-inherit-spot-patterns-from-their-mothers-and-certain-spot-traits-improve-newborn-survival\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Seeing Spots: New Study Reveals the Giraffe Babies Inherit Spot Patterns from Their Mothers and Certain Spot Traits Improve Newborn Survival","og_description":"50-year-old Hypothesis Confirmed with Modern Techniques The beautiful coat patterns of giraffes are individually unique and don\u2019t change with age, but their origins and purpose were a mystery. A new study found wild giraffe spot pattern traits were heritable, passed down from mother to offspring, and certain spot traits improved survival of newborns. Quantifying heritability ... 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Current research investigates Masai Giraffe and other large mammal populations within a fragmented landscape in Tanzania. This work examines how births, deaths, and movements of ungulates are impacted by increasingly fragmented wildlife habitat, and what conservation actions are most effective. He spent 10 years researching the impacts of climate and ocean conditions on survival, reproduction, and population growth rates of marine predators such as northern elephant seals, Common Murres, and Cassin's Auklets at the South Farallon Islands, California. His work was included in a conservation and management plan for seabirds in the California Current. He also studied migration of Black Brant in Humboldt Bay as well as fire ecology of small mammals in California's oak woodlands and California Spotted Owls in the Sierra Nevada.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.wildnatureinstitute.org"],"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/author\/dereklee\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/09\/INFORGRAPHICspots.jpg?fit=1056%2C1632&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgtNOJ-2D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/10\/big-data-for-big-animals\/","url_meta":{"origin":163,"position":0},"title":"Big Data for Big Animals","author":"Derek Lee","date":"November 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses High Tech Big Data Tools Part 1: Matching Giraffe Photos Using Virtual Supercomputers Giraffe are the tallest animal on earth, so it is no surprise that scientists have turned to them to apply big data solutions to wildlife conservation. \u00a0Researchers from the Wild Nature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Giraffe torso photos used to identify more than 3000 individual giraffes as part of the world's largest giraffe study.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2016\/11\/4917765_orig-e1479998973165.png?fit=450%2C385&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/23\/big-data-for-big-animals-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":163,"position":1},"title":"Big Data for Big Animals: Part 3","author":"Derek Lee","date":"November 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Wild Nature Institute Giraffe Research Uses Big Data Tools Part 3: Velocity, Volume, and Variety in Tall Data for Giraffe Conservation Giraffes are big animals, so scientists have turned to big data solutions for giraffe conservation.\u00a0 Researchers from the Wild Nature Institute are conducting one of the largest-scale big mammal\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;ecology&quot;","block_context":{"text":"ecology","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/ecology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/124\/giraffe-skin-disease-linked-to-soil-fertility\/","url_meta":{"origin":163,"position":2},"title":"Giraffe Skin Disease Linked to Soil Fertility","author":"Derek Lee","date":"April 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Giraffe Skin Disease is a disorder of the skin that is characterized by crusty lesions on the back side of the front legs of adult Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) the only subspecies in Tanzania.\u00a0Lesions such as the ones shown in this picture on the forelimbs indicate Giraffe Skin Disease.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;animal&quot;","block_context":{"text":"animal","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/category\/animal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Giraffe in Tarangire National Park","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/04\/GirHeadFunk.jpg?fit=800%2C533&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/dereklee\/337\/the-best-way-to-save-giraffes-is-to-support-wildlife-law-enforcement-and-end-poaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":163,"position":3},"title":"The Best Way to Save Giraffes is to Support Wildlife Law Enforcement and End Poaching","author":"Derek Lee","date":"October 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Iconic animals such as giraffes can be flagship species for conservation because of their charisma and popularity among the public. 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